The Secret Wedding Chronicles, by Kirei Blossom
by Wish-Chan
Summary: Fanfic of a fanfic. Take place immediately after Chapter 68 of The New Trials of Cardcaptor Sakura, by Wish-chan see profile . How do Tomoyo, Meilin, Kero-chan, Miho and Kai react after discovering that Sakura and Syaoran went missing after the wedding? This is an entertaining tale of the dangers of jumping to conclusions. One-shot by the Yahoo Group founder. Please review!


**Tomoyo's Video Diary: New Trials Edition**

**~*The Secret Wedding Chronicles*~**

A Fanfiction of a Fanfiction

Written by Kirei Blossom

Disclaimer: This fic is based on Wish-chan's Cardcaptor Sakura: The New Trials. All CCS characters are copyright CLAMP, and all original characters are copyright Wish-chan. This story takes place immediately after the ending of Chapter 68.

_~ The very next morning after Arima and Asuma's wedding~_

Suppressing a yawn, Miho leaned back into the plush sofa next to Tomoyo. "I can't believe she's still not picking up. Didn't we all agree to meet up here at 11:00am?"

"I don't know why, but my call just isn't going through," Tomoyo answered, lowering her cellphone from her ear and dialing Sakura's number again. The group had decided to meet up at Tomoyo's house to unwind and relax after the hectic long week of wedding planning. Feeling sleepy herself, Tomoyo looked around at the other tired faces – Miho was yawning repeatedly; Kai was sprawled on a recliner, hands behind his head, dozing on and off; Eron was sitting stoically with his arms crossed, gazing off into space. Only Eriol was looking bright-eyed and alert, sitting in a corner with Suppi nearby, sipping tea. And they were still waiting for Sakura, Syaoran and Meilin who hadn't arrived.

Eriol put his teacup down. "Maybe Sakura-san has her phone on silent, and possibly she's still fast asleep."

"No, that's the strange thing," Tomoyo replied. "I don't even hear her phone ringing, and after a while I just get the operator saying that the mobile customer I'm trying to call is unreachable."

Eron looked up. "That happens when there's a problem with the phone network. Keep trying, she'll pick up eventually."

"I'll try dialing Kero-chan," Tomoyo said, scrolling through her contacts list.

Suddenly they heard running footsteps from the hallway outside and Meilin, out of breath, hair flying, bounded into the room. "Is Syaoran here?!"

"Wasn't he supposed to come with you, Meilin-sempai?" Miho questioned. "After all, you guys live in the same apartment."

Panting, Meilin sank down in an armchair. "No, actually, I don't think Syaoran returned to the apartment last night. I was too tired yesterday after the wedding and went straight to bed, leaving the living room light on. But I woke up this morning, and the light was still on, and it doesn't look like Syaoran came back at all. And now I've been trying and trying to call him, but the call isn't going through."

At this point Kero-chan flew in through the window, his cellphone hanging from his neck. "What's goin' on? What do you guys mean by asking whether Sakura is still sleeping or not? I thought she spent the night here since she didn't come back home last night."

Shocked, everyone sat up straight. "WHAT?!"

"Then where'd she go?" Meilin asked, wide-eyed.

"Maybe her brother might know," Tomoyo said.

"Who'll be the brave one to ask though, I wonder," Eriol smiled. "If there's a chance that Touya-san doesn't know either, there's likely to be quite an outburst from him."

Kero-chan started panicking and looked pleadingly around at everyone. "Wait a moment. You can't call her brother. If something's wrong with Sakura, all the blame will be put on me! Her onii-chan would literally kill me."

Tomoyo looked thoughtful. "But we can't just sit here wondering. Maybe there was some family emergency which Kero-chan doesn't know of."

They all sat silently for a while, each looking at the other. Then Eron took out his phone. "I'll call him and ask," After a couple of rings the call connected. "Hello, Touya-san? This is Chang Eron speaking. Have you heard from Sakura today?" Eron blinked as he listened. "Oh. No, it's nothing important. We were just waiting to meet up with her, that's all. Yes. I suppose her phone must be out of battery that's why we couldn't reach her by phone. Right, yes, she's probably late as usual. Okay, thank you. I'm sure she'll show up soon. Right. Bye."

Putting the phone down, Eron sighed. "Luckily, he sounded too busy and distracted with work to suspect anything, but apparently, he hasn't heard from Sakura either."

"But then, nobody knows where Sakura-chan is?" Tomoyo asked, clearly worried.

"Wait, but Syaoran's missing too!" Meilin looked around frantically.

Kero perked up. "He is? That's great, we can put all the blame on the Brat then, and I'll be safe! Ha ha.. Haha!" He started floating around happily.

"Hush Kero-chan, we need to know where those two are." Miho threw a cushion at the sleeping Kai. "Onii-chan, wake up and help! This is serious!"

"Hmmm…" Kai tapped his finger on his arm thoughtfully. "So we know that Sakura is missing, and nobody knows where she is. We know that Syaoran's missing, and nobody knows where he is either. So presumably, they're missing together." He looked around and shrugged. "So what's the big deal? Don't they usually go around missing, and together too?"

"Not like this, overnight, and for so long without telling anyone," Tomoyo smoothed out the wrinkles in her dress. "Both Sakura-chan and Syaoran-kun are very responsible when it comes to things like these."

"Sakura's responsible, I'm sure," Eron muttered, frowning. "But I can't say the same for Syaoran. Anything can happen to him for all I care."

"You don't think they're in any sort of trouble?" Miho asked the room at large. Turning towards Eriol, she said, "Do you know if there's any Dark Force, Eriol?"

Eriol shook his head gravely. "We know there's no Dark Force around. And anyway, wouldn't it be too soon? The Magnet and Metal incident happened only a couple days ago."

"Leiyun!" Meilin exclaimed. "What if Leiyun's got something to do with this?"

"That rascal," Kai punched his hand. "And he wasn't at the wedding either yesterday. Maybe they're all planning something big right when they knew we were distracted."

"I don't think so," Eron said. "I know for a fact that Erika went on a date today. If Leiyun was planning something, Erika wouldn't have made other plans."

"That's true," Eriol refilled his teacup. "If Leiyun-san was involved, we would have felt something amiss. And he would've had his entire group with him."

Tomoyo sighed in relief. "Well, if Eriol-kun doesn't think they're in any danger due to Dark Forces or Leiyun's plans, then maybe we needn't worry so much."

Kai propped his feet up and relaxed. "Maybe Sakura and Syaoran simply went out on a romantic date. About time too! Syaoran's been moving at turtle-pace recently."

Eron glared at Kai, but didn't say anything.

"No, I still think something's wrong," Miho said, chin on hand, going into detective mode. "Even if they went on a date, Sakura-senpai and Syaoran-senpai wouldn't disappear all night long. What if they're in trouble, but it's not related to anything from the magical world? We last saw them at the wedding last night. Who saw them last?"

"I left right at the end at night when my bodyguards came to pick me up," Tomoyo answered. "Sakura and Syaoran were the only ones left, and last I saw them, they were coming out of the chapel."

"But then they didn't reach home," Miho continued. "Which means they disappeared en route."

"You don't think they were mugged or kidnapped or anything?" Kero-chan asked. Sakura did always tell him not to watch too much TV – it gave him an overactive imagination.

Kai shook his head. "How silly. Ordinary muggers wouldn't stand a chance with them."

"But they were really, really tired," Meilin reasoned. "Even I was asleep on my feet by the time I got home. I know I wouldn't have held up if an entire gang attacked me in the dark when I was in that state."

"Well, not mugged - because they would still come home afterwards." A bit of excitement started creeping into Tomoyo's voice. "And though I really don't think petty criminals could harm Sakura or Syaoran, if they were kidnapped, I wish I could have video-taped it." She sighed, disappointed.

Eron spoke up, "If they were kidnapped, which I think highly unlikely, wouldn't the kidnappers have already phoned for ransom?"

"That's right!" Miho exclaimed, snapping her fingers. "Ransom should be the main motive."

"Right, right," Meilin agreed. "Maybe they're about to phone soon."

Eriol smiled, amused. "Maybe the kidnappers slept in late like us, and are only just deciding to get down to business."

"So they might call anyone of us. They might know Syaoran and I live together so I'm the first point of contact." Meilin took out her cell phone and laid it on the table in the middle.

"Well, technically, they'd try and guess at who to call from the contacts list in Sakura and Syaoran's cellphones," Kai said knowledgeably.

Tomoyo put her phone on the table too. "So anyone could be a possibility."

And soon, everyone had placed their cellphones on the table, and sat stiffly in anticipation, waiting, waiting. The only sound to be heard was the clock ticking loudly on the wall. Minutes passed, and still, everyone kept staring at their phones, waiting for one of the phones to ring any second.

Just then, a maid entered the room with some snacks, including a large cake. "Miss, I—"

"Wait!" Meilin held up a hand, without glancing backwards at the maid, eyes still on the phone. "Any second now."

Confused, the maid placed the food on a side table, and left, casting strange glances at the group.

"Hmmmm.." Miho leaned in closer. "I wonder if anyone's going to call." And then….

/RING/RING/RING/

"AHHH!" everyone shouted, jumping out of their skins.

"Whose phone is that?" Eron asked urgently.

Meilin lunged at her phone. "It's mine! Mine!" She scanned the number. "Oh my gosh, it's an unknown number." Hands shaking, she placed the phone to her ear. "H-h-hello? Yes. Yes. Ehhhh? What?!" Meilin's ruby red eyes grew wide and she stood up. "Credit card? No, I don't want a stupid credit card! Don't you have Syaoran? I want Syaoran! No, I… Hello? Hello?" Putting her phone down, Meilin started fuming. "I can't believe this! It was some stupid credit card company, and then they hung up on me. Ugh, this is so frustrating. And they said they'd never heard of a Syaoran before, and asked me whether it was some new type of scheme. "

"There, there, Meilin-chan, calm down," Tomoyo patted Meilin on her arm. "At least it wasn't a ransom call."

Miho had a sudden idea. "Hey, wait a minute. Even if they call for ransom, how're we supposed to pay anyway? We're broke! I mean, I'm broke, I don't know about the rest of you guys…"

Eron furrowed his brows. "Well in Sakura's case, I'm sure they wouldn't settle for less than a million yen, she's worth that much. But in Syaoran's case….." Eron tried to hide a smirk. "It was night when they kidnapped them, right? So I don't blame them, but when they take a look at Syaoran in daylight, I bet they'll regret what they got and would be willing to ransom him off even if someone puts a 100 yen coin in their hands."

"No way," Meilin clasped her hands and her eyes grew dreamy. "Syaoran's worth billions."

Tomoyo clasped her hands and her face went all dreamy too. "I agree. There's no one better than Syaoran-kun to match with darling Sakura-chan."

"Yeah." Miho also clasped her hands and her eyes grew dreamy. "There's definitely something about Syaoran-senpai. And he and Sakura-senpai make such a cute pair."

Peeved, Eron looked to the side. "And why the heck are you clasping your hands with that sick, dreamy look on your face?" Eron asked Kai with venom.

"Obviously, Syao-kun's my number one hero!" Kai replied easily, his face radiant.

Still eyeing Kai suspiciously, Eron stated, "Sometimes I really wonder about you."

"Oh admit it, you love Syaoran too."

"Him? I couldn't care less." Eron nearly vomited.

"Sniffed his hair lately?" Kai smirked.

Sending Kai a murderous death-glare, Eron changed the subject and said, "Well, looks like there's no ransom call coming, and it was silly to think they'd be kidnapped anyway."

"That's right. I was saying that from the start," Kai nodded fervently.

"Yeah, onii-chan's right," Miho piped in. "And remember how Sakura-senpai dealed with all those goons in New York single handedly? I'm sure with Syaoran-senpai with her, they'll both be safe together."

Kai shrugged. "I don't know why we even entertained this idea in the first place? Who's insane idea was it anyway?"

There was a pause, and then everyone turned towards Kero-chan.

"Wh-wh-what? Why's everyone looking at me?" Kero-chan asked, sweating. "I just said it was a possibility."

"Kerberos never seems to have much sense," Suppi flicked his tail, turning a page of his book.

"Well, then, if they're not kidnapped, we still don't know where they are," Tomoyo blinked. "They've definitely been missing for the past 15 hours or so."

Eriol brought over the cake the maid had left earlier and started cutting it into slices. "Maybe we should go over the circumstances of how and when they disappeared. What happened before then? Did either of them say anything which could lend us any clues?"

"Hmmm.. We've just been so busy with Arima-san and Asuma-san's wedding planning all week, I don't think anything else happened," Miho rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "For the entire week, our days started with wedding planning and ended with wedding planning."

"Sakura-chan had that photoshoot a few days ago," Tomoyo added. "And Syaoran-kun agreed to model with her because he couldn't stand some unknown guy in such close proximity with Sakura. Afterwards, that incident at Tokyo Tower took place, and that's it, right? There was just the wedding afterwards."

Meilin leaned back in her seat. "Yeah, I feel like I've just been working on Arima-san's wedding dress since forever and haven't done anything else lately. Oh, Syaoran saw Sakura in that dress, remember?"

"He what?" Eron shouted with malice, his face changing color. "Why didn't you guys say so before?"

"There was that dream too Syaoran had…" Kai looked uneasily over at Meilin.

"What dream?" Eron asked suspiciously.

Meilin was silent for a while, then spoke, "Syaoran just had a dream that Sakura was getting married." Eron looked intrigued, and panicking, Meilin continued on in a rush, "But that was nothing! Obviously we've only had weddings in our heads for so long, it's understandable."

"What else did he see in his dream? Who was she getting married to?" Eron eagerly shifted his gaze back and forth between Kai and Meilin, trying to read their faces.

"Shut up, okay," Kai snapped at Eron. "Why do you care anyway?"

"But then…." Kero-chan started to say something, then fell silent.

"What?" They all asked.

"Ah, I'm not really supposed to say. But Sakura too had a similar dream, where she was getting married." Seeing everyone's shocked faces Kero-chan exclaimed, "But don't tell her I said anything!"

"So… so… What does all this mean?" Miho grabbed her head in frustration.

"'_Wedding'_ seems to be the common theme," Eriol remarked.

Crossing his legs, Kai stated the facts. "Okay, so two people who can't get enough of each other have been missing for a while, together. They planned and attended their friends' wedding, both had dreams of weddings, the guy saw the girl in a wedding dress…"

"I kept teasing Syaoran about what would happen if he couldn't touch Sakura again. I told him he had to man up so he doesn't lose her," Meilin said sorrowfully.

"I gave the same sort of advice," Kai sighed. "I said he needed to be more proactive if he didn't want to lose her."

"Lately they've been in such dangerous situations with everything's that's been going on. Tokyo Tower was dangerous enough." Tomoyo recalled Sakura and Syaoran falling from the top of the Tower. "Each time they've been barely scraping through. Though they don't say anything, I know it must be frightening for them, since they both do all they can to protect the other from harm. They have no way of knowing what's coming next, or even if they'll be able to overcome what befalls them or not."

"And now they're missing. And since we can rule out any danger, we can safely assume that they both went off together willingly. So where did they go? Let's add up all the clues. What do we get?" Miho finished.

The room was quivering with the built up tension. The most horrible idea was beginning to form. For a while all they could do was look at each other. And each saw the same conclusion dawn in the other's mind; each pair of eyes held the same truth. It was absurd, but there seemed to be no other explanation.

"No way…" Meilin said in a hush.

"They wouldn't," Miho whispered.

Tomoyo looked like she would collapse. "Not like this… Sakura-chan would never betray me like this."

"How could they not tell anyone?" Kai asked in horror. "We're supposed to be their friends!"

Only Eron remained silent. For a while he looked like someone had died. And then his expression turned to one of fury, with his hands clenched and his face contorting in rage.

"What?" Kero-chan asked. "What're you guys talking about?"

Tomoyo's eyes started swimming with tears. "Maybe they…. Maybe they…disappeared… because… they…all the facts point to it…. They…"

"Ran off to get married?" Meilin choked out, her fingers covering her mouth.

"WHAT?!" Kero-chan flew up in horror. "No way!" He turned towards Eriol. "Eriol, say something! How can you be quiet at a time like this? You don't think that's possible!"

In reply, Eriol could only look back with an expression that said the world had ended.

All the air seemed to leave Kero and he flopped back down onto the table in defeat, his wings sagging. "Did Sakura-chan really run off with the Brat? Didn't she even care about letting her Kero-chan know?"

"It seems plain as day now," Meilin wiped her eyes. "And no other explanation makes as much sense. Syaoran! How could you! I thought we were cousins!"

"Why didn't they tell me?" Tomoyo whispered. "I wouldn't have stopped them. I'd have helped as much as I could. Sakura-chan….."

"Those traitors!" Kai hissed, snapping a pencil in two. "After all we did for them. I suppose they just went in for a quick, secret court marriage."

"I'll kill him," Eron muttered, his hands twitching as though he longed to strangle Syaoran's neck. "If he coerced Sakura into this…."

"Waaaaaaah~" Tears streamed down Miho's face. "Waaaaaaah, I feel so betrayed!" Seeing her cry, everyone else broke into tears too. Eron started pacing up and down the room, muttering threats.

After a while, Miho said hiccupping, "I wanted to plan their wedding! I wanted it to be such a huge event! And now I have experience planning a wedding too!" She dissolved into tears again.

"We all wanted to plan their wedding!" Meilin sniffed into a tissue.

Tomoyo looked up with red eyes, dabbing her face with a handkerchief. "Do any of you think you've wanted this more than I did? I've been waiting for this event since third grade, ever since I met Sakura-chan! That was before Syaoran-kun ever turned up. But when they became friends, I've always looked forward to this event the most in my life. I've been making preparations for years! I have rooms full of wedding material, dress designs, tuxedo designs, sketch books full of different wedding themes, layouts for invitations, catering menus, everything! And now it all comes to this! Sakura-chan, is this what our friendship always meant to you?" Tomoyo hid her face in her handkerchief again. Cleary, she'd just received the shock of her life.

"Tomoyo-chan," Meilin grasped Tomoyo's hands in her own. "I've wanted to see Syaoran as the handsome groom since I was five years old! It doesn't matter if I wasn't marrying him. I still wanted to see him as the groom!" Saying this, Tomoyo and Meilin hugged and cried some more.

Miho wailed some more. "I wanted to be head of the organizational committee again!"

Kai grabbed the cake from the table and started shoveling spoonfuls into his mouth. "I'd planned to have spectacular special effects and decorations at their wedding. I wanted to make it better than any celebrity event!" Kai ate some more. It looked like he was going to finish the entire large cake for ten people all by himself.

"I wanted to design all the clothes for each person who helped in planning the event! And I wanted to video tape it too, of course!" Tomoyo sniffed.

Meilin clasped her hands and her cheeks grew red. "I wanted to be Syaoran's best man!"

"That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard in my life," Kai said. "Aren't you supposed to be a man to be the best man?"

"NO!" Still blushing, Meilin continued, "Can't they make exceptions? I'm the closest to Syaoran out of anyone. Who else has he got? And couldn't it be termed a best girl? I could be that.."

"He's marrying his best girl." Kai replied. "If anyone, I wanted to be Syaoran's best man!"

"No, I want to!" Meilin retorted back.

"You've lost your mind!"

At this Meilin stopped arguing and her eyes swam with tears. "I just realized I'm still in love with Syaoran. I wanted to marry him."

Kai patted her on the back. "Well it can't be helped. But don't worry, Mei-chan, you can marry me."

"Who wants to marry you?" Meilin pushed Kai on the chest.

"What?" Kai yelped, rubbing the place where Meilin had pushed him. "If Syaoran's a married man now, your only choice now is me. Who else would have you?"

At this Meilin burst into tears again. "Syaoran!"

Tomoyo was still listing the preparations she'd already made for Sakura's wedding. "….and I would've done the best makeup, and I had the perfect hairstyle in mind, and the shoes would be two-and-a-half-inch heels exactly to make the perfect coordination with Syaoran's height.."

Miho and Kero-chan were crying together. Kero-chan sat on the table, and Miho held his paws in her hands. "…and I had planned to write something really good to say at the wedding," Miho was saying. "But they didn't give me any time or even a chance to prepare! Waaah~"

Big, fat tears leaked out of Kero-chan's eyes. "SAKURA-CHAN! Today you repaid me for everything we've been through! You gave me space in your desk drawer, but the day you refused to invite me to your wedding, it proves you couldn't give me space in your heart! I wish I was dead before I had to face this day!"

Suppi sat on the table besides Kero, watching him cry. "Where do you learn such cheesy dialogues from? You're a strange creature, Kerberos."

"Shut up! You would never understand." Kero got up and made to punch Suppi, but he dodged and flew back to Eriol.

"We shouldn't have let Syaoran see Sakura in that dress, it's all our fault," Meilin cried out. "Did you see his expression and the way his eyes went when he saw her? We should've guessed right then what he was thinking."

Tomoyo and Miho nodded their heads.

Meanwhile, Kai had started chugging down an entire 2-liter bottle of Coke. "I shouldn't have given Syaoran that advice the other day. I bet my words put that idea into his head."

"Maybe there's still time," Eron stated hopefully. "Maybe they're not married yet, and we can stop them."

"I don't think so," Kai said. "They've been gone for hours. By now, they're probably on the way to their honeymoon."

"Ahhh!" Tomoyo screamed and stood up, her hands clutching her face in shock.

"What?" everyone asked.

"Their honeymoon! I had everything planned! And I wanted to video tape Sakura-chan's honeymoon."

"Oh dear," Eriol chuckled.

"Don't be insane," Meilin's mouth fell open. "Syaoran would never let you!" None of them had ever thought to hear such a guttery dialogue from Tomoyo.

Nonplussed, Tomoyo explained, "No, I mean I wanted to video-tape Sakura-chan leaving for and returning back from her honeymoon trip. What did you guys think I meant?" She blinked innocently.

"Hahaha, um…. Nothing!" they all averted their eyes.

"But what if we're wrong about the entire idea?" Eron looked at everyone, almost pleadingly. "Like we were wrong about the kidnap idea. Maybe they're not gone to get married after all."

"So where else did they go?" Miho asked.

Eron had no answer to that. But the others desperately started to look for loopholes in the theory, hoping they were mistaken and this huge catastrophe hadn't really struck.

"Yeah…. How come Syao-kun went from turtle-pace to jetliner-speed?" Kai let the empty bottle of Coke fall to the floor.

"You ate the entire cake and drank all the two-liters?" Eron's eyes popped out.

Ignoring Eron, Kai continued, "I mean, the guy who can't even confess his feelings properly, all of a sudden he confesses, proposes and convinces Sakura to get married to him ASAP. Isn't it odd?"

"Maybe Syaoran _kidnapped_ Sakura, and said he wouldn't let her go until she married him." Eron kicked at a chair. "If he dared do that…"

"Syaoran's not like that. He wouldn't force anybody," Meilin defended.

"But why all the secrecy?" Eron was now clutching at straws.

Tomoyo replied, "Maybe they thought we'd stop them."

"I'd definitely have stopped them," Kero declared vehemently. "Somebody tell me how the Brat plans to support Sakura. He's still a high school student! He doesn't even have a proper job! He was first supposed to finish High School, finish College, finish University, then get a proper job, get a proper place to stay, have enough income and savings to be able to support two people at least, and *then* think of getting married!"

"Where does Kerberos get these old-fashioned ideas from?" Suppi asked Eriol quietly. Eriol just smiled.

"Really? You need to do all that to get married?" Miho asked innocently, sounding impressed. "Wow, that's a lot of work, it must be tough for the guys.."

"Kero-chan sounds like a really strict father," Tomoyo whispered to Meilin.

"I still can't believe Sakura and Syaoran did that!" Kai yelled.

"Wait!" Meilin sat up. "I just remembered. There's one surefire way to confirm."

"What?" They all gasped.

"I can't believe I forgot." Taking a deep breath, Meilin explained, "If anyone from the Li Clan marries, the marriage isn't considered valid until the couple take the blessing and are accepted by the Great Elder within 24 hours of the wedding."

"That's silly," Kai countered. "The marriage would still be legal and valid in the court of Japan, and consequently in all the countries of the world."

"Well, that's how it is. I know it's strange, but it's true." Meilin held her hands up helplessly. "But knowing Syaoran, he'd strictly consider this, especially if it means Sakura getting the proper respect deserving of a daughter-in-law of the Li Clan. And if he and Sakura are really married (which I hope not, I hope not, I hope not), they should somehow be arriving in Hong Kong within the next 24 hours."

There was an instant outburst.

Kai shouted, "What are you waiting for? This is our final hope."

"You're only remembering this crucial detail now?" Eron burst out. "I could've known for sure they weren't married an hour ago!"

"Hurry Meilin-nee-chan, contact Hong Kong and find out what's going on!"

"Okay, okay wait," Meilin picked up her cellphone. "I'll text Wei." She hurriedly typed the message, reading it aloud. "_Wei, have you heard from Syaoran? Let me know if you hear anything. This is urgent._" She pressed 'send.' "There, it's done."

They all waited anxiously, heartbeats pounding.

"You know, maybe we might just be wrong about this whole thing," Miho cracked a smile. "I find it hard to believe they would travel all the way to Hong Kong."

"You're right," Tomoyo agreed.

/BEEP BEEP/BEEP BEEP/

"Ahhhhhh! The message! Check the message!" Kai floundered in his seat, nearly falling flat on his face.

With shaking fingers, Meilin took a deep breath and opened the message screen. She quickly glanced at everyone's anxious faces and then read out loud:

"_Dear Meilin-sama, yes, I saw both Syaoran-sama and Sakura-sama just before dawn here today. Things seem to be quite serious. I can't explain everything right now, but I'll let you know the details later. Wei._"

With a clatter, the phone fell from Meilin's limp fingers, smashing on the floor, the battery dropping out.

There was complete silence in the room for ten seconds. Then, everyone's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, and they're jaws went crashing to the floor in horror.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO~!"

And then the floodgates opened. Tomoyo, Meilin, Miho and Kai started crying large torrents of tears that went splashing in every direction.

"It's true, it's true!" Meilin and Tomoyo linked their arms and cried on each other's shoulders.

"Wei saw Syaoran!" Meilin lamented.

"Wei-san saw Sakura-chan!" Tomoyo added.

They wailed simultaneously, "He saw them both, together! In Hong Kong!"

"_Things seem to be quite serious_!" Kai quoted from Wei's message, splashing tears everywhere. "Of course they would, if Sakura and Syaoran turned up on the doorstep married."

"Wei _can't_ _explain everything right now, but will let us know the details later_," Miho was bawling like a baby. "But he doesn't need to let us know the details, we already know it all! They're married. They got married without us! I wanted to be head of the organizational committee!"

Eron didn't say anything at all. He seemed to have accepted the worst and flopped into an armchair, finally defeated, his head in his hands.

Kero-chan was lying flat on his back on the table. He murmured overdramatically, "Sakura-chan, I'm an orphan and homeless now. Where will I go? The Brat won't allow me in his house. Who'll feed me? How will I survive? Ahh, I think I'm dying….."

"Sakura-chan!" Tomoyo sobbed.

"Syaoran!" Meilin howled.

"And thus they say that incomplete information is worse than ignorance," Eriol murmured to himself.

"You would think they were mourning at a funeral, and not a wedding," Suppi looked up from his book. "They look miserable, poor souls." He eyed Eriol serenely. "Why don't you tell them the truth? That you know about the Great Elder's failing health, and you felt Sakura and Syaoran's presence leaving Japan along with the Unicorn towards the direction of Hong Kong…"

Eriol smiled mysteriously, "Then I would have missed all this entertainment."

"You were leading them on from the beginning."

"But I never imagined they would all come to this conclusion. Oh dear, they do look disappointed." Nobody was paying Eriol any attention, but somewhere during the course of the morning, he had grabbed Tomoyo's video camera and had been filming the entire scene."

Miho was clinging onto Kai, crying into his shoulder. "I'm not talking to them when they come back! I'm putting them on total ignore!"

"Yeah! Us too!" Everyone blubbered.

Eriol sighed. "If all of them hadn't been this overworked and exhausted by Arima and Asuma-san's wedding preparations, and had calmly thought things over instead of being frantic, they would soon realize Syaoran and Sakura-san would never get married without their friends. But it doesn't seem they'll realize the truth, does it, Spinel?"

Suppi shook his head. "What will you do with that video clip?"

Eriol took a final pan-shot of Tomoyo and Meilin leaning on each other and sobbing into their handkerchiefs; Miho and Kai clinging to each other and bawling like babies; Kero-chan still uttering his death-speech on the table; and Eron slumped in his chair like a zombie, his face turning blue. Soon the floor started to flood from all the accumulation of tears and the items in Tomoyo's room started sailing around.

Eriol picked his feet off the floor and pulled over a footstool. "What will I do with this video clip?" He smiled a furtive smile. "Perhaps Sakura-san and Syaoran will be highly amused when they see it. And once things tide over, Tomoyo-san and the rest are bound to find it hilarious. Or will they find it mortifying? Only time will tell. Well, that's enough now." His finger pressed the 'stop' button on the video-camera. "Cut."

**~*~END~*~**


End file.
